LM 77

Woo Taeju grabbed Woo Hyunse’s coat collar, but the other man brushed it off lightly. Grinding his teeth and not willing to leave just yet, Woo Taeju spoke clearly, enunciating each word to Woo Hyunse’s back as he turned away.

“You’re just playing with Kwon Siyul, aren’t you?”

The steps heading toward the door stopped in place. He only turned his head, but still only the outline of his nose bridge and cheek was barely visible. Woo Taeju spilled out his unfinished thoughts through gritted teeth.

“I know Kwon Siyul looks trivial in your eyes. So let him go. That person doesn’t suit you.”

“…”

“He suits me. Let him go. I’ll have him.”

The last part was his true intention. Just as Woo Hyunse seemed about to turn around, Woo Taeju’s body went flying. With a thud, his back violently hit the wall. It was such a shock that nausea rose for a moment.

As he gasped out a choked breath, Woo Hyunse forcibly lifted his lowered head and pressed his throat with a forearm that seemed bundled like steel rods. The pressure was intense as if trying to hang Woo Taeju on the wall like a piece of clothing. His heels lifted off the ground involuntarily.

“Taeju.”

No matter how much strength the younger man used, he couldn’t escape that arm. Unlike Woo Taeju who was exerting all his might, Woo Hyunse’s voice was calm. Even his breathing wasn’t rough.

Just when he thought the arm choking his neck would loosen, Woo Hyunse grabbed both of Woo Taeju’s cheeks with his hands and crushed them. His mouth opened wide, exposing his tongue and the molars deep inside. Woo Hyunse stared into it quietly.

“Our Taeju’s tongue is intact.”

He barely managed to grasp Woo Hyunse’s wrists, but couldn’t close his gaping mouth. Instead, the grip tightened, causing pain as if his cheek flesh was being crushed. Despite the groans of pain escaping out of his mouth, Woo Hyunse didn’t release his hand.

“So is that why you can’t distinguish what should and shouldn’t be said?”

Woo Hyunse waved his hand as if flicking away something dirty. As his cheek turned sideways, Woo Taeju collapsed to the floor with a thud. He cupped his stinging jaw and cheeks with his palms. Though they had bumped into each other playfully many times before, he had never experienced such threats and violence. The fear was greater than the shock, and he couldn’t even dare to look up.

Woo Hyunse bent one knee to sit, matching eye level with the other man. He gently brushed back Woo Taeju’s disheveled hair and patted his shoulder.

“It’s fortunate we’re blood-related.”

Leaving Woo Taeju sitting there dazed, Woo Hyunse left the office. At the secretary’s report that the car was waiting, he nodded his head as usual, as if nothing had happened inside.

He craved a cigarette terribly. Getting in the car, he couldn’t hold back and took one out to smoke. The driver in front turned and offered a lighter, lighting the cigarette tip red.

He expanded his chest, inhaled, and exhaled slowly. He sucked in as if to burn through a whole long cigarette in one drag and held it in. The acrid smoke soaked his lungs and rose back up. Only when the white smoke circulated through his blood vessels did his sharp senses finally dull their edge.

He took another drag, thinking of Woo Taeju. No matter how fearless one might be, how could he carelessly invade another’s domain and let his tongue wag like that? He had wanted to rip it out but held back, thinking back to their relationship until now.

He needed to teach him a lesson at some point, but he didn’t expect it to be today. Recalling the words Woo Taeju had spouted, he regretted only giving him a mild warning. He should have stomped on him decisively this time to prevent him from ever climbing up again.

Clicking his tongue, he picked up his phone. A new photo had just arrived. Clicking on it, a picture of Kwon Siyul taken from afar filled the screen. The quality was terrible as if it had been zoomed in too much.

“They can’t even take a proper photo.”

He had wanted something like the photos Kwon Siyul used to send, but that seemed too much to ask for now.

He thought Kwon Siyul would at least go on some regional tour, but he was obediently walking around the park near home. Whether he was trying to build trust or attempting to lower Woo Hyunse’s guard was still unclear.

“This is why everything gets complicated…”

Because he was unnecessarily gentle and pretty. Because he couldn’t casually steal others’ livers and hearts, and lived by strictly keeping his word. Because when offered something, instead of just taking it, he’d turn his back and lie down saying it wasn’t right. Because even when told to push away, he couldn’t bring himself to do it and would tear up, making his face unbearably lovable.

Woo Taeju, with his keen eye for people and things, couldn’t have failed to see that essence.

Woo Hyunse leaned his head back on the headrest and laughed with a deflating sound. Above all, it seemed he himself was probably the most terrible bastard, who was clinging to Kwon Siyul with all his life.

* * *

He couldn’t get his phone back. Woo Hyunse said he would personally inform him about Kwon Yuwon. Going out was only possible when accompanied by a bodyguard. Though he was out of the room, the confinement was still ongoing. The cage had just gotten a bit bigger.

Still, should he be thankful that he was at least allowed to get some fresh air? Kwon Siyul walked along the park path and sat on a nearby bench. Piles of unmelted snow were still scattered throughout the park. On the grass was a snowman someone had built, and on another bench, a row of snow ducks or rabbits lined up.

It was a peaceful scene. Enough to bring a contented smile just by looking at it. But Kwon Siyul’s inner state was far from calm. Even a snowstorm would be milder than the worries Kwon Siyul was experiencing at the moment.

Seeing a vending machine nearby, Kwon Siyul got up from his seat. He searched his pockets but found only the card Woo Hyunse had given him to use. Even this seemed like part of the shackles to track his movements, so he held it for a moment before shoving it back into his pocket.

No matter how much he searched, not a single coin came out, so he crouched in front of the vending machine and scanned the ground. It was something he often did when he had no money. Searching under vending machines usually yielded a stray coin or two.

“Use this.”

He hadn’t heard the footsteps approaching. Kwon Siyul looked at the suddenly outstretched hand and followed the arm up with his gaze. It was the bodyguard. Even for just the park in front of the house, a bodyguard was assigned.

“Thank you.”

He bowed his head slightly and accepted the coins. He inserted them one by one and pressed the coffee button. The sound of the paper cup dropping and the stream of liquid pouring followed. As he took it out, mist bloomed over the coffee as it met the cold air.

“Have some.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re working hard following me around. Next time I’ll buy it with my own money.”

Finding it difficult to refuse twice, the bodyguard accepted the coffee. Kwon Siyul also bought another coffee with the remaining money. Taking a sip, his insides, plagued by the cold, slowly thawed.

“Hyung, how long have you been working for the CEO?”

The word “hyung” came out so easily. It had taken him a very long to change how he addressed Woo Hyunse.

“About 3 years.”

“That’s quite a while. Come to think of it, what’s your name, hyung? I donn’t even know your name.”

The man dutifully answered that it was Kim Jisang. Kwon Siyul murmured, “Jisang hyung.” Kwon Siyul found out that Woo Hyunse had even made the request not to use formal speech, when he saw the man shaking his head.

Kwon Siyul pointlessly tapped the cold concrete ground with the toe of his sneaker. Just as he used to do in the playground when getting scolded by Kwon Yuwon as a child.

“Have you seen the CEO’s fiancée?”

He was so out of it that day. He couldn’t clearly remember what the person standing next to Woo Hyunse looked like. He vaguely recalled an elegant, beautiful, and graceful presence. Woo Hyunse fiddling with his tie, Woo Hyunse’s face suddenly devoid of expression, only the cold and sharp scent like dark, deep water rippling was deeply etched in his mind.

“Once—a long time ago.”

“What kind of person is she?”

“I don’t know much.”

“Still, at least what they do for a living or something?”

“…”

The man held back his words and just stared into the distance. True to being Woo Hyunse’s subordinate, he was as cold as ice. Though it wasn’t even his own money, Kwon Siyul started to regret buying him a coffee.

“She’s a good person.”

As if sensing Kwon Siyul’s feelings, or perhaps out of kindness, the man glanced down at the coffee he had drunk and spoke. Kwon Siyul perked up his ears. He didn’t want to miss anything.

“She’s capable and consistently do volunteer work.”

“What does she do for work?”

“She’s a lawyer at Yusong Law Firm.”

Even though he was ignorant about that sector of the world, Kwon Siyul had heard the name Yusong before. It was the place wealthy people always sought out for lawsuits. Wasn’t the consultation fee hundreds per minute? She worked at such an impressive place. She seemed to have everything—personality, background, looks, and ability—to the point of excess.

Such a person was Woo Hyunse’s fiancée.

“She sound amazing.”

She suited Woo Hyunse well. She was in a place so high and far away that someone like him couldn’t even dare to compare. Despite this, Kwon Siyul laughed bitterly at himself for trying to find even a thread of possibility with his “what if.” It was like dreaming the vain dream of someday living at the top of a high-rise building while living in a semi-basement rental.

At the hollow laughter that escaped without him even realizing it, the man looked at Kwon Siyul for a moment. His gaze soon scattered elsewhere.

Perhaps because he drank coffee on an empty stomach, his insides felt sour. But he wanted to wet his stinging throat. He wanted to drink more, but the paper cup was already empty. Not having the nerve to ask to borrow more coins, Kwon Siyul simply chewed on the rim of the cup. While the coffee had been bitter-sweet, the paper cup just became even bitterer the more he chewed.

Kwon Siyul sniffled and raised his gaze. The cloudless sky was so blue it was chilling. Winter was always colder and more dangerous the clearer it got. Though there was no forecast for a cold wave, it felt much colder today than yesterday, yesterday than the day before, and now at midday than this morning.

For some reason, the draft that froze his head and nose tip never disappeared, whether in the orphanage or after leaving it. Kwon Siyul didn’t know if the bone-chilling cold was due to the wintry cold air or if there was another reason. The biting wind seemed to blow not through the land, but over his life.